Means for protecting electric circuits from excessively-high differences of potential and similar disturbances.



R. RCDENBERG. TING ELECTRIC CIRCUITS FROM EXCESSIVELY HIGH DIFFERENCES 0P .POTENTIAL AND SIMILAR DISTUEBANCES.

APPLICATION FILED HA3. 14, 1913. I

. v Patented Apr. 14, 191i mnms ron mom:

be made as high as desired and, on the other 'tecting electric circuits from excessive rises 7 after and pointed out in the claims.

Each voltage or current wave which travels tive choking coil and to be sent back onto "UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE' NEINHOLD RIl'DENBERG, OF CHARLOTTENBURG. GERMANY. ASSIGNOR T0 SIEMENS;

SCI-IUCKERT WERKE, G. M. B. H., OF GERMANY.

BERLIN, GERMANY, A CORPORATION OF MEANS FOR PROTECTING ELECTRIC CIRCUITS FROM EXCESSIVELY-HIGH DIFFER- ENCES OF POTENTIAL AND SIMILAR DISTURBANCES.

' Application filed March 14,

To all-whom it may concern Be it known that I, REINHOLD Rumin- BERG, a citizen of the German Empire, and residing at Charlottenburg', near Berlin, Germany, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Means for Protecting Electric Circuits from Excessively-High Differences of Potential and Similar Disturbances, of which the following is a specification. 1

My invention relates to apparatus for proin pressure fund similar disturbances.

The invention conslsts 1n the arrangement and combination of parts described herein- The objects of the invention are described hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawing, wherein.:-

Figures 1 and 2 show two forms of my protective means when applied to the end of the line, Figs. 3 and 4 show two modified forms of the same when applied between two sections of the linefand Fig. 5 shows another modified form of the same as ap plied to multiphase circuits and to protection against grounding.

As is well known, electrical apparatus and machinery which are connected to long aerial lines or cables can be protected from the admission of abnormaltvoltage waves by connecting a choking coil in the line.

along such line and represents a rapidly movlng excessive or reduced voltage as compared with the normal working voltage is intended to be reflected by such a protecthe line. In reality this protective device is limited in its action since, on theone hand, its concentrated self-induction cannot hand, when there are very'rapid disturbances, c. g7. sudden rises in voltage which occur when switching lines and apparatus into circuit, the entire self-induction 'of/the protective choking coil does not come into Specification of Letters Patent.

play but only a portion thereof which can Patented Apr. 14, 1914.

1913. Serial No. 754,314.

fall as low as the leakage induction between two adjacent turns. Another form of protective device is known in the art in which any disturbing wave is reflected at the terminals of a condenser interposed between the line and ground, so that onlya small portion of the disturbance, depending on the size of the condenser, can enter for instance the machine fed by the line. Perfect pro tection of the windings of such machine is, however, not afforded by this system.

The protective choking coil and the protective condenser have the common drawback that, although without appreciably influencing the low-frequency working current they do keep away from the machine to a certain extent all disturbances in voltage lasting a veryshort time, they nevertheless reflect this energy of the disturbing-wave back onto the line without weakening it. The disturbing waves being thus continually reflected therefore travel to and fro on the line until they are finally dissipated owing to the 'very low resistance of the line. Each reflection by a device for keeping back these waves is, as already stated, not

perfect, but such a device allows a portion of the disturbance to pass on, whereby the windings of the electrical machine are continually abnormally strained until the dis turbing wave is completely dissipated.

In order to annihilate the energy of the disturbing wave it has heretofore been proposed to connect into the line a concentrated self-induction and a resistance in parallel therewith, or to connect between two lines,

or between the lines and ground a concenii in order to be able with these last described protective devices to absorb the energy of the disturbing wave as quickly as possible the resistance in parallel to the inductance must be given twice. and the resistance in series with the capacity must be iven onehalf the value of the line characteristic, .this charm-teristic being the square root of the quotient of self-induction and capacity per unit length of the lines. Half the energy is converted into Joules heat, one quarter of the energy of the incoming wave is reflected, and the last quarter passes through the protective devieeinto the second section of the line. It will therefore be readily understood from the above that these arrangements do not afford effective protection against powerful disturbing waves, since both the reflected disturbing-waive as well as that which passes through have half the current and voltage amplitudes of the original wave. In order that the wave'which passes through may be smaller the value of the ohmic resistance must be considerably changed, but thereby the advantage of rapid absorption of energy is lost, and the effect of the arrangements will approximate to that of the devices described at the beginning.

A primary object of my invention is to obviate the above detects, and to provide protective means which will perfectly ab sorb the incoming disturbing wave and convert its energy into Joules heat. The ineon'iing wave can then neither be reflected nor pass throughthe protective means to the line beyond. To this end I do not employ only self-induction and resistance, or only capacity and resistance, each of which coinbinations by themselves are insuflicient to produce the effect desired, but I employ in combination the three necessary elements, vim, concentrated self-induction, concentrated capacity, and an ohmic resistance adapted to the characteristic of the line c and I arran 'e that these elements are con nectedsimultaneousl at ad'acent )0lI1tS on the line as shown.-

It is obvious that the protective device must comprise ohmic resistance for. annihilating the energy of abnormal waves of any form. Accordingly, the termohmic resistance 'as used in this specification is to be understood as including any device in which energv is dissipated or converted into another form of energy. That self-induction and capacity must be conjointly einployed can be explained by the fact that a concentrated inductance reflects any incoming rapid voltage wave substantially with the same sign, but that a concentrated capacity sends back the voltage wave onto the line substantially with a reversed sign. If it is desired to effect the extinction of the reflected wave, this "an therefore be brought. about only by the conjoint action of self-induction and capacity. whose individual reflected waves neutralize each other. \Vhen by suitahlv proportioning the resistance provision is made for complete absorption. of the incoming disturbing waves, this protective device will allow no energy to pass through it. 'lheoretically it follows that in this ideal case the ohmic resistance must be about equal to the characteristic of the loop of line to be protected ahnost independently of the particular construction of the protective device.

Referring now to Fig. 1, very effective protective means according to my invention are here shown. In the line Z leading to a machine m to be protected are interpolated concentrated imluctances a, while behind these a condenser is is connected he ween the lines. The resistances 7' are connected in pa 'allel with the inductances. The normal working current is not-materially influenced by the protective a iiparatus, but flows through the inductances s and passes by the capacity Any rapid, disturbing wave arriving from the line Z. however, cannot enter the inductance s, but finds a path through the resistance It is reflected at the condenser is so that it must again pass through the resistance. it the values of the self-induction and capacity were infinite, the

energy of the disturbance would be completely annihilated by the resistance. Since, however, both these values must be made definite, there will be slight divergences from. this ideal ase, but as tlieoi'y .-2ho\\'s it is possible to employ for each value of the self-induction such a value of the dampmg resistance r that only an exceedingly small amount of the incident wave is allowed to pass oris reflected.

Fig. 2 shows another protective device which operates in a manner similar to that just described. The condenser Z' here provided with a series resistance r and is connected between the lines in front of the inductances s. The mode o't operition of this arrangement corresponds entirely with that Of the arrangement just described. It is here more clearly seen that the wave reflected by the capacity and self-induction, being of reversed signs, can neutralize each other, so that the entire energy of the disturbing wave can be dissipated in the resistance 7'. This protective device can be employed in the same way as in front of apparatus at the end of electric lines. or at any other desired places on the line itselt',

e. 7. where the aerial lines are connected to insulated cables. In order to annihilate wave-trams from both sides it'is pre'l'erablc to duplicate either the condensers or in such an arrangement. The resistances 1' are of course preferably given diiferent values when lines of different characteristics are connected together. While Fig. 3 represents the duplicated form of the" arrangement shown in Fig. 2, Fig. 4 shows the arrangement shown in Fig. 1 when modified for absorbing waves which enter from both sides. This arrangement shown in Fig. 4L is specially advantageous in that the inductances connected in the principal lines need not be connected, at the places shown in dotted denser and resistances, whereby, on the one hand, less apparatus is required and, on the other hand, the risk present in the arrangement shown in Fig. 1 ofthe network being short-circuited through 'fiash-overs at the condenser is now avoided because there is always some resistance in series.

As the values of the damping resistances very materially depend on the characteristics of the line to be protected resistances of different values will frequently be employed for the various lines of a multiphase system. The characteristic of any line relative to ground is generally greater than the characteristic relative to one of the other lines, so that it is desirable to make that damping resistance of the protective device considerably greater relatively to ground. Then not only willall the disturbing voltage waves which travel between two lines be perfectly absorbed when they reach the protective device, but also any voltage wave which travels between any particular line and ground will be completely annihilated. Fig. 5 shows a protective device ofthis kind, wherein the resistancesr r r serve for damping purposes for the lines themselves,

and the resistance 1-,, as an auxiliary damping medium toground.

In none of these protective devices can free electric oscillations occur, notwithstanding the simultaneous presence of condensers and inductances, because the damping resistance must in itself be of such a value that any natural vibration is suppressed. On long distance lines a number of such protective devices may, of course, be arranged,

so that rapid equilibrium disturbances occurring on any one section of the line cannot pass the protectedends of this section, but will be dissipated there. To obtain with certainty the complete absorption of the disturbing wavesit may be preferable to con-.

nect several of the described protective devices in series in order to dissipate with certainty that remnant of the waves which passes through one protective device because the capacity and self-induction have finite values. I

Theresistances employed for annihilating thedisturbing waves are preferably made of material of high specific resistance so that they may be of short length and may really operate as concentrated ohmic resistances. The terms concentrated self-induction and capacity as used herein include any artificial increase in the inductivity of the line or in the capacity.- essary that special condensers and inductance coils be connected in circuit. An effective concentrated inductance can, for example,

be )roduced by leadin the current-ca'rr in b D line through thin, concentric disks of sheet iron, in which a powerful self-induction field can form. These disks may have between them an air-gap in order to reduce the effect ofvarying permeability. Beside electrostatic and electrolytic condensers I may connect in the line, for example, short lengths of cable which have a considerably higher capacity than the line to be protected. The above described protective device ha the advantage not only of discharging its function, as most of the previous protective devices have done, when the rises of potential are considerably above the normal voltage of the system, but also of annihilating any very small disturbing waves.

It is not absolutely nec lVhen very considerable rises in potential above the voltage of the system occur, the dielectric of the condensers is of course considerably strained. puncture, preferably spark-gaps f (Figs. 1 and 3) maybe connected .in parallel with the condensers, which short-circuit the condensers when they are very much overstrained and so, on the one hand, protect their dielectric and, on the other hand, just because .of the short-circuit which acts as a condenser of infinite size, do not afiect the action of the protective device for excess voltages. If desired, other damping resistances w as shown in Fig.1 may be connected in series with these protective spark-gaps, and be partly or wholly united with the damping resistances of the -.condensers. Electrolytic condensers provide in.t-hemselves fax orable conditions for discharge and therefore, in general. need no special sparkgaps in parallel with them.

I claim 1. In an electric circuit the combination with a line constituting one side of the circuit, of a concentrated inductance inserted into the line, a concentrated capacity con- ,nected between the line and the other side of the circuit, and a resistance connected in series with said capacity.

2. In an electric circuit comprising several lines, the combination with said lines, of a concentrated inductance inserted into each To protect it against of said lines, a concentrated capacity con,- nccted between said lines, and resistance connected in series with each of said capacities.

In a polyphase electric circuit, the combination With the lines, of aconcentrated inductance inserted into each of said lines,

a star connection between said lines, eachbranch containing a resistance and a capacity in ser es, and a connection between the oss 

